All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

Famous People

In this section, we shed light on some of the most famous and infamous people known throughout history, from powerful pharaohs, to emperors and empresses, acclaimed military leaders, or just regular civilians who’ve been thrown into the spotlight for great crimes or for heroic actions, leaving an indelible mark on the world.

An imaginary depiction of Cerdic of Wessex from John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy." Source: John Speed / Public domain
6 July, 2022 - 19:00 Mark Johnston

The Question of Ancient Kings: Cerdic of Wessex, First Saxon King of England?

Historians of the ancient world face a myriad of challenges when studying the past. Centuries of legends and myths become intertwined with recorded facts, leaving behind a complex web of mystery...
Segment of 18th-century illustration of Brian Boru. Source: Public domain
6 July, 2022 - 15:00 Jake Leigh-Howarth

The Legendary Brian Boru: Ireland’s Greatest King

Brian Boru was Ireland’s greatest conqueror and the first man to unite the Emerald Isle into one realm, rising above the divisions of the squabbling Irish elite and their 150 kings. As well as...
Left, Image of the church at Wiejkowo, the proposed site of the Harold Bluetooth burial. Right; Harald Bluetooth sketch representation. Source: Left; Marek Kryda, Right; Public Domain / The First News
30 June, 2022 - 23:00 ashley cowie

Harald Bluetooth’s “Probable” Burial Mound Scanned By Satellites

The lost tomb of the 10th century Viking King, Harald Bluetooth, has “probably” been identified “again.” When Old King Gorm died around 935 AD, the new Viking ruler of Denmark and Norway became...
Marble busts of Didius Julianus who bought the Roman Empire at the end of the 2nd century AD in a facial reconstruction artwork created by Daniel Voshart. Source: Daniel Voshart / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
28 June, 2022 - 22:44 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Didius Julianus, the Man Who Bought the Roman Empire

In the year 193 AD an auction took place that sent shockwaves throughout the ancient world, as buyers competed for the greatest prize of a generation, the Roman Empire. Following the murder of...
Greek hoplite in armor and with weapons and shield. Source: anibal / Adobe Stock
27 June, 2022 - 18:54 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Soldiers of Bronze: The Greek Hoplite, the Phalanx, and the Battle that Defined Them

Hoplite comes from the Greek word “ ta hopla ,” which means “tool” or “equipment,” and was the name given to legions of citizen soldiers who were tasked with protecting their territories from outside...
Aethelred II or Aethelred the Unready sitting on his throne unaware that history would judge him to be unready for what lay ahead as the Anglo-Saxons battled the Danish Vikings. From the illuminated manuscript, The Chronicle of Abindon, circa 1220 AD. Source: The British Library / Public domain
24 June, 2022 - 22:48 Molly Dowdeswell

Aethelred II: Aethelred the Unready, or Was He Just Unlucky?

Immortalized forever as an incompetent, ill-advised monarch by his epitaph, King Aethelred II has been viewed unfavorably by history. Over the last decade, historians have made moves to reinterpret...
The Urdubegis were female warriors tasked with protecting the Mughal emperor and his harem. Representational image. Source: Public domain
20 June, 2022 - 22:45 Khadija Tauseef

Urdubegis: The Forgotten Female Fighters of the Mughal Empire

When we think of the empowerment of women, we usually think about Western culture. Nevertheless, the East has had its fair share of female role models. While Islam has historically given men the role...
The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers by Jan de Baen. (Public domain)
19 June, 2022 - 18:52 Tracy McLoughlin

Johan de Witt: The Failed Politician who was Cannibalized by his Opponents

Even after a successful political career, Johan de Witt has gone down in history for having suffered one of the most bizarre assassinations in history and one of the few recorded cases of cannibalism...
Robert the Bruce’s heart was found in 1921 and lost again until 1996. Now this King of Scots (Bust of Robert the Bruce at the National Wallace Monument) rests in peace, knowing his final wishes were granted. Source: Left: tussik / Adobe Stock; Right: Otter / CC BY-SA 3.0
13 June, 2022 - 22:44 Robbie Mitchell

The Long Road Taken By Robert the Bruce’s Heart

Robert the Bruce is one of the most, if not the most famous Scotsmen to have ever lived. Infamous for the 14th-century reign that saw him taking on England’s much bigger and better-equipped army and...
Queen Elizabeth II. Source: Open Government License
13 June, 2022 - 19:03 Cecilia Bogaard

Queen Elizabeth II Becomes Second Longest-Reigning Monarch in History

As the United Kingdom recovers from the jubilee celebrations which took place from the 2nd to the 5th June 2022, commemorating seventy years since Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne, the queen has...
Queen Elizabeth I as depicted in the film Mary, Queen of Scots. Credit: Focus Features
12 June, 2022 - 22:54 Mark Brophy

Was Queen Elizabeth I Killed by her Poisonous White Makeup?

Queen Elizabeth I was one of the most successful, celebrated queens in British history. The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn , she came to the throne on November 17, 1558, following the death...
Detail of an etching of Manetto, who was pranked by Filippo Brunelleschi, from The Fat Woodworker. Source: Public domain
10 June, 2022 - 18:44 Lex Leigh

Filippo Brunelleschi and his Remarkable Renaissance Prank

Everyone loves a good, harmless prank. This was especially true for Filippo Brunelleschi, a Florentine man who famously got back at his friend for having failed to show up at a dinner party in...
The saints Chrysanthus and Daria being pushed underground to their horrible death in a salt mine. Source: Public domain
24 May, 2022 - 22:57 Sahir

Legendary Christian Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria Proved To Be Real

Legend has it that the now Christian saints Chrysanthus and Daria, who lived in the third century AD, converted thousands of fellow Romans to the Christian faith. This resulted in their arrest and...
Il Disinganno, or The Release from Deception, by the Genoese artist Francesco Queirolo. Source: Dalia Nera / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
19 May, 2022 - 22:58 ashley cowie

The Impossible Statue: The Marvelous Marble Net of Il Disinganno

The impossible sculptural feats within the Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will take your breath away. Amongst them, the famed statue known as Il Disinganno , was carved out of one single block of...
Amphora dating to circa 540 BC made in Attica, Greece, depicting bees from ancient Greek mythology. Source: The British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
19 May, 2022 - 18:53 Lex Leigh

Getting Buzzed: The History of Hallucinogenic Mad Honey

Everyone loves honey. A delicious, sweet treat, it can be used in recipes, cosmetics, or as a sugar substitute. However, not all honey is made the same. This is incredibly clear in Nepal and Turkey,...
Klaus Störtebeker was part of the Victual Brothers pirate band that terrorized the Baltic Sea until . . . Source: waewkid / Adobe Stock
17 May, 2022 - 22:37 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Klaus Störtebeker: The Bizarre Tale of a North German Pirate

Looking to the past, the annals of history have its fair share of extraordinary and unusual deaths, some more famous than others. It’s well known that Attila the Hun, the marauding Mongolian warlord...
Obverse and reverse of the golden Curmsun disc. Source: Tomasz Sielski / CC BY-SA 3.0
12 May, 2022 - 22:55 ashley cowie

Sweden’s Enigmatic Golden Curmsun Disc

In 2014, a young girl living in Malmö, presented her teacher with a small golden disc brought to Sweden by her Polish grandmother. Little did she know that this small golden artifact, now dubbed the...
Left; Portrait of Francisco Pizarro. Right; The tomb of Francisco Pizarro in the Lima Cathedral held the wrong man’s remains for nearly a century, but modern science has corrected the error with Pizarro’s remains, found in two boxes beneath the cathedral in 1977. Source: Left; Public Domain, Right; RAF-YYC / CC BY-SA 2.0
9 May, 2022 - 18:58 Sahir

Finding Francisco Pizzaro: The Strange Story of Pizarro’s Remains

It’s fair to say that Francisco Pizarro was a highly divisive figure. Indeed, even a mention of him today in some parts of the world can incite blood fueled anguish and hatred of the man responsible...
Left, a Sedducee, who some scholars claim the Teacher of Righteousness is based on. Right, A fragment of the Damascus Scroll in which the Teacher is most mentioned. Source: Left; Hartmann Schedel / Public Domain, Right; CC0
3 May, 2022 - 23:02 Bipin Dimri

Who was the Teacher of Righteousness in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The Teacher of Righteousness is supposedly the person who replicated the God-like figure by his words, beliefs and actions. Who was he? Was he Jesus? The Teacher of Righteousness is a figure...
Representational image of Ermine de Reims. Source: inarik / Adobe Stock
2 May, 2022 - 22:58 Meagan Dickerson

The Visions of Ermine de Reims - Supernatural Forces in Everyday Medieval Life

Ermine de Reims was a relatively inconsequential peasant woman who moved to the town of Reims, in northeastern France, from rural Vermandois with her elderly husband in 1384. She was a pious woman,...
Artists impression of Brahmin, representative of the of the Sena Dynasty elite, who were part of the Brahmin top-echelon caste in India who forged the Sena Empire. Source: Olena / Adobe Stock
2 May, 2022 - 14:59 Jake Leigh-Howarth

The Sena Empire: Rise and Fall of the Last Hindu Kings of Bengal

The kings of the Sena Empire, who were part of the Brahmin top-echelon caste in India, originally came from Karnata in southern India before they moved to the Bengali region. The history of the Sena...
Representational image of Achilles. Source: Warpedgalerie / Adobe Stock
30 April, 2022 - 18:53 Khadija Tauseef

Achilles: The Greatest Hero of Greek Mythology?

“Sing Goddess, the rage of Achilles” is the very first line of The Iliad , Homer’s epic poem, as he introduces its main hero. The Greek hero Achilles was believed to have been the strongest, bravest...
Whatever Happened to Blackbeard’s Silver-Plated Skull?
29 April, 2022 - 22:52 Lex Leigh

Whatever Happened to Blackbeard’s Silver-Plated Skull?

Blackbeard, an infamous pirate from the 1700s, was notoriously an excellent fighter and survivalist. He was so famous, in fact, that after his death his skull was rumored to have been plated in...
Vaccination poster image. The story of inoculation is far older than you might think. Source: bakhtiarzein / Adobe Stock
27 April, 2022 - 22:54 Lex Leigh

Just a Poke: The Origins of Inoculation

With the recent pandemic and the still-spreading Covid-19 virus, inoculation has become a hot topic throughout several areas of the world. Regardless of what side you’re on, the history of...

Pages